Don’t Blame President Putin

US, EU, Look in the Mirror

by Felicity Arbuthnot / March 6th, 2014

If you can keep your head, when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you …”
— “If”, Rudyard Kipling, 1865-1936

The delusional and mind-stretching hypocrisy of Western leaders and spokespeople regarding the outcome of external meddling in the Ukraine increasingly mirrors King George 111 whose “life and reign were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas and Asia …”

He also, of course, lost America, accused of having “plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people”, a mantle America’s settlers seamlessly took over, first against the indigenous population, before moving further afield in 1798 — ceaselessly ongoing. History taught Britain nothing either, except to slavishly become a snarling, yapping lap dog in the very expensive, detrimental trans-Atlantic “special relationship.”

George was finally diagnosed with recurrent – and eventually permanent – mental illness. Perhaps delusion can too easily become the price of power.

“You just don’t go invading another country on completely phony pretexts. It’s really 19th century behaviour in the 21st century”, said Secretary of State John Kerry, slamming Russia for “invading another country on completely trumped up pretext.” He, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague, were, of course, cheerleaders for illegally invading Iraq on “completely trumped up pretext.”

Kerry rounded off March 4th with: “Freedom would never be achieved by bullets and provocation.”

Think Panama, Grenada, Yugoslavia – lawless Kosovo carved out of Serbia – Afghanistan, funding the foreign organ eaters, beheaders and hand choppers of Syria in order to “violate the sovereignty”, years of threatening Iran – and, and, and …

David Cameron, having taken his orders from Washington, spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, stating they had agreed to “speak with one voice and send a clear message to Russia that its actions in Ukraine were completely unacceptable”, there would be “costs and consequences” for Russia which had violated “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another country.”

William Hague, in Kiev to embrace an entirely illegitimate administration some of whom are photographed using Nazi arm gestures, said of Russia: “The world cannot just say it is OK, in effect, to violate the sovereignty of another nation in this way” and Russia’s actions and support of the Crimean region could not be allowed to become the “normal way to behave in international affairs.”

President Obama, in charge of Gulag Guantanamo, in contravention of his electoral vow to close it, personally ordering drone strikes on individuals, funeral gatherings, wedding parties, farmers, child wood gatherers and villages from Pakistan to Yemen, Afghanistan to Somalia; Obama, also involved in the destruction of Libya, thus party to the appalling assassination of the country’s Leader and the assassination of someone purported to be Osama bin Laden in an illegal incursion in to Pakistan, has charged that President Putin is “on the wrong side of history.”

Nicholas Burns, former Undersecretary of State under George W Bush and former US Ambassador to NATO accused: “Obviously Putin has won the Crimea through brute force.” Well, no, apart from a few shots in the air on March 4th, not a shot has been fired, unlike the slaughterhouses generated by various “international coalitions” – and Russia has a legal agreement for anchorage of its Black Sea fleet there until 2042. In Sevastopol, where the fleet is based, much of the population, in fact, have Russian passports.

America, of course, has nine hundred bases in one hundred and fifty three countries.

In Ukraine ethnic Russians make up 58.5% of the population, with ethnic Ukrainians just 24.4% and Crimean Tatars 12.1% (2001 census.) One of the first acts of the illegitimate government was to repeal a 2012 act recognizing Russian as an official language. Whilst this disgraceful move has been vetoed by the puppet President, it has not been repealed.

Moreover: “Under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the US, Russia, Ukraine and the UK agreed not to threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. They also pledged never to use economic coercion to subordinate Ukraine to their own interest.” (BBC March 4th.) There surely should be “costs and consequences” for the US, Ukraine and UK for violating a binding agreement – if the $ fifteen billion to Ukraine just announced by the EU is not “economic coercion”, it has to be wondered what is.

On March 4th at the United Nations, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin showed a letter to President Putin from the still legitimate Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, asking Russia for troops to protect civilians. The request was approved by the Russian Parliament (Duma) “on the territory of the Ukraine pending the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country.” The “Right to Protect” comes to mind.

With factions of the “government” in Kiev calling for the deaths of Jews, blacks and Russians, increasing attacks on Synagogues, destruction of historic symbols, the request seems more than justified, as does President Putin’s claim of an “unconstitutional coup”, after an agreement of concilliation was signed on February 21st attended by his envoy and three EU Foreign Ministers.

However, Senator John McCain, EU Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Catherine Ashton and US Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria “Fuck the EU” Nuland, and John Kerry all pitched up in Kiev to support an insurrection comprising a considerable element of far right and neo-Nazi supporters. Nuland bizarrely handed out buns and cookies from a plastic bag.

On February 20th expert snipers who shot more than twenty protestors, are now alleged to have been hired by the same opposition leaders the US and EU embraced so warmly, according to a leaked report of a telephone conversation between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Catherine Ashton. The near bankrupt country’s treasury was looted – with the EU seemingly knowing who to blame for the looting since they have frozen their assets. Work that one out.

As for the cookie toting Ms Nuland, as Professor Michel Chossudovsky has stated:

It was confirmed by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland that key organizations in Ukraine including the neo-Nazi party Svoboda were generously supported by Washington. And I quote Victoria Nuland: ‘We have invested more than $5 billion to help Ukraine to achieve this and other goals.’ That refers to a period extending from the 2004 Color Revolution to the present. And there is ample evidence of Western support – both covert support through intelligence ops as well as diplomatic support through the US State Department and the EU, of course.

Nuland is married to Robert Kagan, one of the authors of the “Project for the New American Century”, which advised on Iraq, in what has become a blueprint for planned overthrows of sovereign governments:

We should help establish and support (with economic, political and military means) a provisional, representative and free government of Iraq in areas of Iraq not under Saddam’s control.

Just replace Iraq with Libya, Syria, Ukraine or wherever else Capitol Hill eyes roam. Kagan’s modestly entitled book, The World America Made, was endorsed publicly by Barack Obama and referenced in his 2012 State of the Union address.

Ironically Victoria Nuland’s original family name was Nudelman, a grandfather being Meyer Nudelman, from a family of Jewish immigrants to the United States from the former Soviet Union.

But for all the scheming, plotting, overthrowing, subterfuge, sabotage of sovereign states, taking on Vladimir Putin may be a bridge too far. He is not a man who loses his head, “when all around are losing theirs” and blaming him. As Kremlin analyst Sergei Glazyev has stated regarding the outrageous idea of imposing various trade and financial embargoes by the US and EU on Russia, the victim:

If sanctions are applied against state structures, we will be forced to recognize the impossibility of repayment of the loans that the US banks gave to the Russian structures. Indeed, sanctions are a double-edged weapon, and if the US chooses to freeze our assets, then our equities and liabilities in dollars will also be frozen. This means that our banks and businesses will not return the loans to American partners.

Glazyev also pondered dumping the dollar to reduce its dependence on the U.S. financial system and switch to other currencies.

We have wonderful economic and trade relations with our Southern and Eastern partners. We will find a way not just to eliminate our dependence on the U.S. but also profit from these sanctions.

Russia is also a major supplier of oil to Germany (about 40% of the country’s supplies) the Netherlands “and Western Europe generally.” Germany has 6,000 companies based in Russia and German business organizations are shouting warnings loudly.

The French have entered a number of major contracts to supply Russia with Naval vessels. Russia also imports from Peugeot, Citroen, Renault and numerous French companies from L’Oreal to Auchan groceries, farming equipment from the Kuhn Group, home goods from Leroy Merlin and numerous more.

The UK would lose hugely from the Russian investment both in the City of London, in multi-million pound land, mansion, football club purchases and countless business ventures. All in all messing with President Putin represents volleys of shots in countless international feet.

A further player in this mess has been the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) based on the US National Endowment for Democracy. Neo-Con territory on steroids. Early last year the EED declared:

The Endowment comes at a very timely moment, as 2013 will be a crucial year for democratic transitions, in particular in the EU’s neighbourhood. The European Endowment for Democracy can play a very important role. By working directly with those in the field, who are striving for democracy …

The Board had “discussed the strategic vision and mandate for the EED and appointed Jerzy Pomianowski, Poland’s undersecretary of state for foreign affairs, as its Executive Director.” It was noted under “Ukraine” that “given the close links between Poland and Ukraine, it is expected that Ukraine will be one of the EED target countries.”

At the Crimean Yalta Conference (February 4-11 1945) Stalin said of Poland:

For the Russian people, the question of Poland is not only a question of honor but also a question of security. Throughout history, Poland has been the corridor through which the enemy has passed into Russia. Poland is a question of life and death for Russia.

NATO is currently stepping up military exercises with Poland.

Imagine if NATO were next door, further encircling Russia, in Ukraine. It will not be countenanced.

Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist with special knowledge of Iraq. Author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of Baghdad in the Great City series for World Almanac books, she has also been Senior Researcher for two Award winning documentaries on Iraq, John Pilger's Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq and Denis Halliday Returns for RTE (Ireland.) Read other articles by Felicity.